REVIEW: Elle King – Ex’s & Oh’s.

Elle King seems to be the answer to a question that was never asked: what would happen if you took Meghan Trainor and Gin Wigmore and merged them together? She has sass and attitude, she exudes confidence and she’s sexy as hell with a set of pipes and image that are impossible to ignore.

Meghan Trainor decided that her schtick was going to be body confidence and set out on a mission to convince everybody that bigger girls are sexy too. Unfortunately she did so through a slew of skinny shaming lyrics and ignorant remarks, hiding how awful she really is behind a fake, cutesie, conservative 50s/60s image and persona that irritated more than it endeared.

Elle King knew that she didn’t have to convince anyone that she had sex appeal, it’s clear from the moment she starts singing and the second you see her. Her voice is gritty, definitely in the Amy Winehouse/Duffy/Gin Wigmore family, which gives the dirty, rock star-esque visuals in her “Ex’s and Oh’s” music video all the more authenticity.

If I’d heard this song on the radio with no introduction I seriously would have assumed it Was Gin Wigmore singing, their voices and music are extremely similar. The song has a rock sound that blasts through the barrage of pop trash on the radios but is pop enough to still have mass appeal. It’s refreshing to hear this kind of sound making it big, even if it is disappointing that it isn’t Gin managing to do it.

The music video has caused controversy and catapulted the song up the charts, but she didn’t need to bring other people down to achieve this unlike a certain other pop star. The only people getting butt hurt over the music video are men who feel uncomfortable seeing themselves put in the positions that women occupy for men’s pleasure far too often. Elle has flipped the typical gender roles used in music videos and seeing this kind of imagery from a female’s perspective is more than welcome in my books.